Where Comfort Is Given
by Konstantinsen
Summary: Desperation can either break a man or make him. I never knew this place existed. Now, I just don't know what to do.


**NOTE: Setting takes place before the events of Clear Sky.**

* * *

Desperation can either make a man or break him. In the Zone, that's a daily challenge. Psy-storms were the equivalent of hurricanes and the wildlife was enough to spend all your ammunition on. With stalkers getting bolder and bolder in their raids, God knows what unpredictable bullshit is going to happen next!

Seeing people die, especially those you know and worked with for times on end, can make you yearn for comfort. Since you don't come across women in these parts (and considering how a lot of them are some really tough bitches), it would be something akin to a dream-come-true if you find a whole haven of them in places you least expect. Sometimes; you imagine them and hit on your buddy. And sometimes, you can't really grab the fruit basket that reality tosses onto your lap.

In this case, it was hard to believe that there was actually a brothel in the Zone. Unsurprisingly ran by Bandits, it was a place of "comfort" for everyone—Loners, Bandits, the factions, mercenaries—with almost all choices taken care of (which means that women weren't the only merchandise around). As to how the Bandits managed to keep order, I don't really know. Not many knew this location so that kept it out of trouble for the most part.

I took off my mask and was bombarded by the smell of shit and perfume. The whole place was an abandoned tunnel network converted into a working hostel with functioning ventilation in each room. The Bandits are a mysterious and troublesome lot—they come from all places with different backgrounds and different connections and you can never trust them to have your back. But you could trust them with handling shady businesses like these (aside from the usual mugging, conning, and racketeering). From where these girls come from, you could guess. I really didn't want to think about it.

You could hear the action from everywhere. Some guys liked it soft and gentle, others did it hardcore, and there were these weirdoes having these freaky fetishes. We were accosted by one of the girls, a red-haired broad, and immediately Erik got into it, paid the pimp, and was already busy unzipping his suit.

I continued down the hall until I was yanked into this highly decorated room. There two guys holding down a naked girl in front of me. She was sweating and I could hear the discomfort in her voice. She looked at me and I could see tear marks down her cheeks.

"Fresh, premium virgin!" the pimp yakked. "You get to be the lucky first, buddy. Only for an increased fee."

I almost choked. I already hated this place. If only I could get to those Ecologists at the Swamps… "How much?"

"Three thousand."

"But that's more than what an artefact is worth!"

"Hey, you don't find good stuff like this in an anomaly. It's three thousand or pick from the regular roster."

The kid looked at me. She probably wasn't eighteen yet. Baggy eyes, rashes, dots on her arm… I knew that this was an international ring—one of those European syndicates or something along those lines. Already, I wanted to save her. This wasn't a place for a seventeen-year-old who's probably on her way to college. I dug into my satchel and handed the guy a wad of bills.

"You got one hour. After that, we're coming in to make preparations for the next customer. If you want an extension, you'll need to cough up another thousand."

"I got it."

The pimp snapped his fingers and the guards dropped her on the mattress. They were snickering—those finicky bastards—and the guy smiled at me. "Enjoy. And by the way, she's new. So be gentle." I watched him pull the curtain and leave. "Or not." And they laughed all the way down the hall.

I closed the door and pulled the curtain. The girl curled up on the far side of the floor, trembling as though I'd bring doom on her. I approached her; she whimpered, "Please don't… I, I just want to go home…"

Her pupils were dilated and I could make out bruises all around her body. I really hated those bastards. From robbing and killing to doing this; it crossed the line for me. I crouched in front of her and asked her, "It's okay. I'm not a customer. What's your name?"

"Whah?"

"What's your name?"

She fumbled for a moment. "Darya."

"Okay, Darya. My name is Viggo. I'm here to help you."

She gave me a confused look. "Huh?"

"No one's going to hurt you." I started improvising from that point. The Bandits didn't know how to do a proper search so it was easy to slip in with a pistol and a knife. "I'm going to get you out of here."

"But… I'm scared. I don't want to die…" She sobbed for a whole minute and I had to hug her just to stifle her moans. "I just want to go home."

"You are going home. I'll make sure of that." It wasn't a lie.

"But there's too many of them. We won't make it."

I cupped her face. "I promise. I will get you out of here if it's the last thing on this Goddamn earth that I have to do." I saw the blanket and wrapped her in it. Erik was probably too busy humping his chick but I couldn't risk leaving him here if I started a fire. We both slipped in some hold-out weapons and that was enough to get us through when the shit hit the fan. That is, if we took every shot carefully and were skilled at dodging bullets.

I couldn't risk using my PDA as well so I thought that if I reached his room, get him out, and told him everything, then I could probably drag his sorry ass through the fire zone up towards the exit. I picked up a bottle of vodka in the corner and the tore off a sheet of the blanket. I tore down the curtains to serve as a makeshift robe around her. I ripped off some more sheets to wrap around her feet which were sore from walking for distances I'd rather not dwell on. I don't know what came over because I was already in full pumping adrenaline.

Just as I was about to tell her the game plan, I heard a knock on the door.

"Hey man!" It was the pimp. "You're a thousand short. What the hell?"

That lying bastard. I didn't count how much I gave him but I was damn sure it was more than enough to cover the expenses. "But I paid you four thousand!"

"Don't even think of scamming me, dickwad. Pay up now!"

"But I don't have much on me right now."

"Tough luck!" He tried the handle. That was when I told the girl to stay behind me. I kicked the door open, sending the asshole crashing to the ground. "What the hell!"

I shot his face three times before looking down the hall and shooting the next guard then turning around and shooting the third one. By then, all hell had broken loose. It was a free for all: screaming, shouting, and naked guys coming out of the rooms with pillows on their dicks.

I dragged Darya along with me, shooting down whoever tried to aim their guns at us. Erik ran out of his place, trying to scramble his ass into his suit. "Viggo! What the fuck!"

"Get your gun. We're getting out of here."

"What are you talking about?"

"I said get your gun!" I suddenly get pushed inside and as we tumbled onto the floor, we heard gunshots echo right past us. "Shit. Get up and start shooting."

"What is this? A rescue mission?"

"You bet your ass it is. Now help me!"

Erik grabbed his gear and covered fire while I reloaded. I didn't count much down here but I sure was certain that more were above ground and they were probably on their way down after hearing all those gunshots. "Care to tell me what your big plan is?"

"I don't really know."

"What!"

"I'm improvising." I look back and yank the kid by the arm. Erik's prostitute just stared at me and back at the wall. She was drugged beforehand. Erik wouldn't do something like that. "Come on. This way!"

"Watch out!" Suddenly, the red-haired broad ran up and bit the bullet. We watched her go down, not knowing for a moment what to say. God knows what they inject into these kids! The successive volleys of fire were enough to get us focused.

"What's her name?"

"Darya," she replied, thoroughly scared. Erik got a good hold of her and used himself as a human shield against anyone from behind.

When we got to the stairs, we heard a woman tell us to stay put (or rather, command us to do so). We turned around and saw this Amazona, chest bare, aiming her automatic shotgun at all three of us. "I get where this is going," she said. "This is the safest business I find and two dipshits mess it up for me. What the hell!"

"Look, I'm just trying to—"

"Cut the bullshit, asshole." This was one tough and scary lady. "Some of us just don't want to leave."

Darya seemed to have mustered up her strength because she marched up to the Amazona, which really put me on edge, and stared her down. "I do. I'm sick of this place. I just want to go home!"

Somehow, that got through. (I don't really understand girls.) The Amazona contemplated for a while before lowering her gun. "Alright. Fine. I guess not everyone's a fan of freedom. And I don't mean those junkies at the Army Warehouses."

"Eat this, mother fuckers!" All of a sudden, in a quick succession of movements too fast for me to comprehend, the Amazona pushes Darya down, swings around and empties seven shells at a stalker who just appeared out of the rooms.

"Okay, so maybe that'll piss off some of the clients but I don't give a good fuck, really," she said. I've met some tough women but this one took the cake. Not only that, she scared me more than my mother. And my grandmother. And my aunt.

"So let's get going then!"

Madame Amazona was already taking the lead. She led us right to the surface where we found more enemies to shoot. We all took cover except for Madame Amazona who, amazingly, went Terminator. I don't know what the hell happened but by the time I lifted my head from the concrete barrier, there were around five fresh corpses and a grazed topless woman standing tall with a smoking gun. "Wimps," she huffed.

As we ran across the camp, we started hearing rotor-blades and all of a sudden, we get blinded by these bright lights from the sky. "Hold fire! Hold fire! Civilians in view," a loud voice ordered.

Then out of nowhere, a team of soldiers pin us down and take Darya and the Amazona to a landing chopper. I affixed my eyes up and more troops drop down and head toward the shack that led into the tunnels. After that, I was face-planted again on the ground. I heard gunshots. Then screaming. Then men shouting.

"Take them! We'll need them."

We got hauled up to our feet and dragged to the shack that housed the entrance. Around us were dead bodies and I could see some of the jarheads guiding the shell-shocked prostitutes out. I was guessing that downstairs, the clients were half-naked with their hands on the walls and being "thoroughly" searched in the most inappropriate way possible. My imagination can run as wild as that at times.

We got pushed around a bit until finally we see the commanding officer.

"I'm Major Kovalsky. I'm in charge here. Some of the girls tell me you started this whole fracas."

I looked up at him. "So?"

"Good job."

"What?"

"Let's just say that we both wanted to do the same thing. We didn't really expect someone to get nudged by his conscience."

"Excuse me?" That was offensive.

"Sorry. A lot of the stalkers we come across are either dead or just plain rude. You on the other hand, you turned out to be a real good help tonight."

I really didn't trust this guy. "Where are you going with this?"

Kovalsky leaned over. "I'm letting you go. You and your buddy. We'll forget all about this little meeting and pretend from now on that it was just butterflies and peaches. This'll just stay between us so if you ever try to show your face around our checkpoints, you can guarantee getting shot on the spot."

"Is that a threat?"

"It's a warning. Like I said, this stays between us. My superiors don't know we're disobeying orders here. We let you go and we forget all this happened. You can go loot the bodies or whatever."

Strangely enough, they did just that. The Military can be so unpredictable at times that you never know when they'll shoot you in the back after saving you from an anomaly. Clandestine operations were often a trademark they shared with the Mercs. But right now, they were on our side… just on this one night.

They left with all the girls just before dawn, leaving us to pick up the pieces and pretend like we didn't see anything. Unlike that would ever happen.

Still, as we gathered what remained and looted some good stuff, I felt really good. It was like I redeemed myself for all my bad deeds. I've killed some men, true. I've stolen some things, true. But saving a girl from the future that could destroy her—and ensuring that everyone else gets the same treatment—was something new to me. And it was enough to set things straight.

I guess I was really desperate when I took up the offer to "have a fun time." I just didn't expect it to turn out this way.


End file.
